Posted on 11/07/2015 10:30:48 AM PST by Kaslin
We were both waiting for our delayed planes in the boarding section of a large airport. I had noticed the young man wearing the sandy-colored desert-camo uniform and after I thanked him for his service, we just naturally started talking. Elated about going home for several months after a year in Afghanistan, he was open and even chatty in the aw-shucks way of a youth raised in a solid middle class family in the heartland. I didn't tell him I am a raving, flaming, right-wing writer because I didn't want his views to be colored by mine.
I asked Dane (not his real name of course) how it was going over there; if it was dangerous where he was. He laughed and said it was extremely dangerous largely because of Obama's rules of engagement that wouldn't let them fire on enemy fighters unless they were nearly 100 percent sure they were Taliban. "One hundred percent is just impossibility in a war," he said. "We are being handicapped by our own commander-in-chief who is so terrified a civilian may be hit that all these precautions make it downright dangerous for us. And they're really good at hiding weapons in their loose clothes."
He told me that soldiers are also reluctant to fire because they may be hauled up in military court to be prosecuted and maybe do time for doing their jobs. Every time they think about pulling the trigger they hesitate to consider if they'll be facing a court martial.
But his commanding officer "revised" the rules to protect his men. "He told us to hell with the rules, we should fire whenever we feel we’re in danger," said Dane, smiling at the chutzpah required for common sense. "He said he's not gonna be responsible for sending any of us home in a body bag."
Another rule that they could only enter the home of an Afghan if invited in also frustrated their battle against the Taliban. "Before, we could get a good idea where they were, bust down the door and raid the place," Dane said. "But now they hide in homes and buildings and they know we're not allowed to go after them. It would be pretty unusual to get invited into a Taliban fighter's home for tea."
I asked if he thought the Afghan army that we are supposed to be training would ever be able to stand up on its own and fight for its country's freedom.
Dane said there are many brave Afghan soldiers committed to battling for their nation. "But a big part of the problem is cultural and religious," he said. "Do you know what inshallah means?" I answered that it had something to do with the will of Allah. "Exactly. Means 'if Allah wills it.'And it applies to everything in their lives, every single thing they do."
An example? "In our marksmanship training we learn to concentrate, sight precisely on the target, and hold our breath to steady our aim as we squeeze the trigger," explained the young soldier. "We practice and practice and learn just what we need to do for a successful shot. But for an Afghan soldier, inshallah means that he'll only hit the target if Allah wants it to happen. So marksmanship doesn't really matter. The bullet can come out and go all over the place" here he waved his index finger in a jaggedy trajectory through the air "but if Allah wants it to happen, that bullet will somehow find its way into the heart of the enemy fighter."
But what does that kind of determinism do to -- training?
That's just it, he says. "The four months of basic training American troops go through before deploying is something we just can't do with the Afghan soldiers over there. Their culture won't allow it. In Basic, you're worn down, humiliated, all your independent spirit and your pride, your individualism as a person that's all stripped out of you. Then when there's nothing left of you, they build you up again. They give you your pride back, you get it all back. But you're a whole different person now; you're a warrior."
Dane looked at me with shining eyes. "And we've been doing that for over two hundred years. That's how we've built the strongest military, the best fighting force the world has ever seen. "
So that's what we need to do with the Afghans, he explained. Here's how: "Bring some of their best over here and put them through basic training, American-style. The whole enchilada. Then send them back to their country and put them in charge as their military's troop trainers."
"Then we'll see such instant progress the world will be amazed. That's how we win this thing," he said, getting to his feet and shouldering his pack. His plane had been called. One last question: What does he think of President Obama? A twisted smile: "I'll tell you this. All of us in the military can't wait until we have another Commander in Chief."
***”We are being handicapped by our own commander-in-chief who is so terrified a civilian may be hit...”***
I remember reading of the raid on Dieppe when during the shooting, a Frenchman popped out of a door and was immediately shot down by a Brit or Canadian.
I talked with a man who, operating in China, shot and killed a white Russian in WWII. There was not time to vet the people and see if they were trying to kill you or not. The White Russian did pull a gun before he was shot dead.
Such rules of war will get you killed but makes Obama’s followers feel so good.
I don't get it. If the taliban have no problem killing our soldiers, how come the Afghan soldiers do. Aren't they the same people and believe the same thing? What's their problem, then.
The only way to win against an Islamic hellhole is to deislamize it. Short of deislamization, the sharia barbarians rule and jihad flourishes.
America had been on the side of the jihadists for the past 35 years.
Yep the reason Obama is a Community Organizer(speech giver) ,he useless at everything else
I mean, how come the Afghan soldiers have a problem with killing the enemy, the taliban (not our soldiers).
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! That, and ONLY that, is the way to win over there!
Yep, “Hearts and Minds”, a proven winning strategy... Or not.
It has gotten so violent and out of control over there that critical systems being installed to monitor Iran’s nuclear program have been shutdown. Of course, that is exactly what Obama and his primary handler, Valarie Jarrett, an Iranian citizen and muslim, demands.
“I’ll tell you this. All of us in the military can’t wait until we have another Commander in Chief.”
Hittlery?
Our poor beleaguered troops and half of our nation are living in hope that the pestilence of liberalism will be defeated. It will take an act of God.
and you deislamize it by using the best tactical weapon ever conceived that we no longer have.
The Neutron Bomb.
Sorry, I disagree. You can never deislamize a culture 1000 years old. What you can do however is delegitimize the radical element. Embarrass them, mock them, humiliate them. Shoot them with bacon wrapped bullets and insist they don’t deserve a Muslim funeral.
Sometimes you have to fight fire with gasoline.
And here I thought that when we were "training an Afghan army" this is what we were doing. Silly me.
"Bring some of their best over here and put them through basic training, American-style. The whole enchilada. Then send them back to their country and put them in charge as their military's troop trainers."
Um, how about we send a few instructors over there? Of course, after training them like that, they'll probably revert or be considered apostate. Frankly, the whole thing is a lost cause after this much time and treasure. We've been over there long enough to raise a whole generation, and if we can't do it in that amount of time, we should just forget the whole thing.
The rules of engagement are indeed criminal. But there is utterly, assuredly, no way possible to win in Afghanistan.
Their hillbilly tribal version of Islam assured they will always be the way they are.
better ROE will only give our kids a better chance in the game of whack a mole.
20 more years there and it would look exactly the same.
fight to actually win....this shit goes back to korea...where they didnt fight to win, we are the greatest miliary (despite dumbass in the whitehut) in the world and would wipe out islamic terror in short order if we were allowed to do the job of the military: kill people and break things.
but we have been handcuffed for over sixty years from korea to vietnam to the first iraq war down to todays war against islamic dirtbags.....
“Sorry, I disagree. You can never deislamize a culture 1000 years old.”
Iran in the 60s, even look at photos of life in Afghanistan in the 1960s. Both were western, no veils, they were free and happy. It can be done. But it won’t be.
When a Muslim kills a fellow Muslim, like the Taliban, they are doing the work of Infidels.
When they kill an American soldier they are doing what Allah wants done. -Tom
There was a post a few years ago showing through the years the graduating classes of the University of Cairo. In the 50's through the 70's western dress and smiling people. Not so much afterward.
How about we pull out, let them stew in their own juices, and nuke 'em from orbit if they cause any more trouble.
It's the only way to be sure.
God bless you young warrior. From an old retired warrior.
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